Video gaming has come a long way from the likes of Atari and the Nintendo Entertainment system. High-powered PCs and the top-level console systems — the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — present users with high-resolution images and dynamic animations that give an almost lifelike feel to the gaming experience. However, there is one thing that hasn’t changed much since the olden days of gaming: the controller.
Besides “rumble” technology, that vibrates the controller with a small weight and motor-in response to on screen actions, there have been very few developments of note. U mechanical engineering students have created a next-generation controller to coincide with new systems and game, called the reactive grip controller.
The controllers are made using haptics, a concept that involves the sense of touch.
“Optics is to sight as haptics is to touch. It’s the study of and how we perceive through our sense of touch,” said Markus Montandon, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
The device will help gamers actually feel their games.
“What [a haptic device] does is read the friction forces in your hand that you would feel if you have a real gun, sword, fishing pole — it actually gives you the ability to feel subtle things like the sensation of opening a door or riding a dune buggy. It brings you in and makes you feel like you are reacting with these virtual objects,” Montandon said.
“In ‘Elder Scrolls,’ you can feel the weight of the sword you’re swinging, in ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Battlefield’ you’d feel the kick of your gun, in flight simulators you’d feel the resistance of your joy stick,” he said.
The prototypes are ready to send out to testers, but there are still challenges ahead.
“Our goal is to basically get modifications to support this new technology in current games or to get developers to create games with touch feedback,” Montandon said.
Game developers need to start creating new games that utilize the new technology and the mechanical engineers also need manufacturers willing to build enough haptic devices to make them public.
There are wide ranging possibilities for the use of haptics outside of gaming including applications in physical rehab, robotics, military, hazardous waste cleanup and sea and space exploration.
William Provancher, a professor of mechanical engineering has worked with Montandon to establish Tactical Haptics, a company founded to commercialize the haptic technologies developed in U laboratories.